CELEBRATING TEN YEARS OF MARKCRIMMINS.COM: 5 AUGUST 2007--5 AUGUST 2017!!!

Welcome to the home page of fiction writer and university lecturer Mark Crimmins. Mark has been publishing short stories and flash fictions since 2010. He is currently Senior Lecturer in English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. As a lecturer and assistant professor, Mark taught Contemporary Transatlantic Fiction, Twentieth Century Literature, Modernism and Postmodernism, and Literary Theory at the University of Toronto from 1999 to 2016. Mark grew up in Manchester, England, where he attended Canon Slade Grammar School. He has lived in the UK, the USA, Japan, Canada, and China. After his undergraduate studies in Utah, he received his MA in English (1993) and PhD in Twentieth Century Literature (1999) from the University of Toronto. His fiction has been published widely in the United States and around the world. His short stories were nominated for a 2015 Pushcart Prize, a 2015 Best of the Net Award, and a 2015 Silver Pen Authors Association Write Well Award. He currently lives in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

"Chain Letter: An Artifact" has been accepted for publication and will be published in an upcoming issue of Oregon's 45th Parallel Magazine.

"Hong Kong Labyrinth" has been accepted for republication by FlashFiction.Net, an ally of the Journal of Compressed Literary Arts. This story was originally published in theNewerYork back in 2014 but has since been lost because the journal it appeared in and its attendant websites are no longer available. Many thanks to editor Randall Brown for bringing this piece back from oblivion and putting it before a new audience!

"The Undertow," another piece from Intersections, was accepted for publication in Pure Slush's anthology, 7 Deadly Sins, Volume 5: Wrath, on 4 December 2018. Many thanks to editor Matt Potter for bringing this story out.

"The Only Song is the Song of the Self" has been accepted for publicaton by Fiction Southeast and will be published in one of its upcoming issues.

"Keyboard" was published in 7 Deadly Sins, Volume 4: Sloth, an Austraiian anthology, on 25 November 2018. I'm excited about this, partly because it's my Australian debut.

"Yanagawa" was (re)published in Chaleur Magazine on 3 November 2018. For the first time, this story is published with a transcript so it can be read with a standard English script direction!

"Cross Section Hanoi' was published in the UK's Long Exposure Magazine on 24 October 2018.

"Benton City and the End of the World" was publlished in Eclectica on 15 October 2018.

"What Every Man Needs," a Tokyo story, was published in the October Issue of Pif Magazine, Issue 257.

"Recognition on Forty-Seventh Street" was published in the UK's Spelk on 26 September 2018.

"Eagle Rock," another flash fiction from Intersections, was published in an anthology, Utah's Best Emerging Writers, on 18 September 2018.

"The Great Negation," one of the flash fictions from my collection, Intersections: Experiments in Short Fictional Form, was published in Eunoia Review on 4 September 2018.

"First and Adams," another of the flash fictions from my collection, Intersections, was published in the UK's Flash: The international Short-Short Story Magazine in November 2017. This story can be found in Issue 10.1: April 2017. Many thanks fo editors Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler for this second publication with Flash. I'm also very excited about my second publication in the UK.

"Into the Valley of Death," one of the pieces from Intersections, was published in Issue 22 of Del Sol Review in September 2017. Many thanks for Kari Pilgrim and the editors of DSR for this publication, an important one for me, and also my first publication in the Washington DC Area.

"Characters Madmen Alone Can Read," the title story from my collection, Characters Madmen Alone Can Read, was published in Chicago Quarterly Review on 13 June 2017. I'm especially excited for this story--based on my six years of experience as a Japanese librarian--to be published. Many many thanks to Editor Elizabeth McKenzie and the editorial staff of CQL for this publication!

"Bear Hug and Snake Bum," one of the stories from Intersections, was published in Issue 11 of Prick of the Spindle on 24 October 2016. Copies of the issue and subscriptions can be purchased from the magazine's website. This is a print only publication, so it can only be read in the magazine itself. Many thanks to founding editor Cynthia Reeser for this publication and for her continued support of my work.

"Padang Besar," a story from Intersections, was published on 15 October 2016 in Issue 66 of Apalachee Review. This is a print only publication, so please order a copy of the magazine from the Apalachee Review website! Many thanks to editor Michael Trammell for this publication!

"The Postcard," a flash fiction from Intersections set in Paris, was published in the October 2015 Issue of the UK's Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine on 23 June 2016. This is a print publication, so if you would like to read it, you can order the issue from Flash's website at the University of Chester. The story is also one of two 'Sample Stories' on the journal's web page, so you can read it there if you like. Many thanks for this publication to editors Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler. I am particularly excited about this--my fiction debut in the UK.

"Midnight in the Carre St. Louis," a story from Characters Madmen Alone Can Read, was published in the Summer 2016 Issue (123: 2) of Queen's Quarterly, Canada's oldest literary magazine, on 7 June 2016. I'm very excited about this publication, my fiction debut in Canada. Many thanks to Joan Harcourt and the staff of Queen's Quarterly for helping me to reach a Canadian audience! I am especially pleased by the beautiful presentation of my work by Queen's Quarterly. This story also is accompanied by my debut photographic work. The editors kindly asked me if I would provide visual accompaniment to the narrative, so this publication is doubly satisfying: it's beautifully presented by the magazine's staff, but i also get to illustrate it with my own photographic interpretation of the story.

In April 2015, "Shiretoko" was nominated by Kristyn Bacon, Founding Editor of Trainless Magazine, for a 2015 Silver Pen Authors Association Write Well Award. Many thanks to Kristyn for this recognition and nomination!

"Incident on Abiko Street" was nominated by the editors of Cha for a Best of the Net Award in October 2014. Many thanks to Tammy Ho and Cha for this recognition and nomination!

"Incident on Abiko Street" was nominated for a Pushcart Fiction Prize by Cha in November 2014. Many thanks--again!--to Tammy Ho and Cha for this nomination, my first Pushcart nomination. I'm very honoured by this!

My proposal for Stories Without Geishas, a collection of Japanese tales, was shortlisted for the 2003 David T. K. Wong Fellowship in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Invited Readings

10 May 2005. Medicine Show Theater, Hell's Kitchen, New York City. I was invited to read "On This Most Perfect Day" and "The Dick Doctor's Wife," my first two published flash fictions (alternate titles: "Yonge and Charles" and "Bay and Charles") at the issue launch party for avant-garde journal Happy. These were the first of my Intersections stories to be published. Many thanks to editor Bayard for this early recognition and publication. The fabled New York audience did not disappoint. To have my first reading be in New York City was definitely a big moment for me!

Fiction Publication History

On 10 May 2005, “Yonge and Charles” and “Bay and Charles,” the first two flash fictions from my Intersections series, were published in New York avant-garde literary journal Happy. “Slimer,” the first story from my collection Characters Madmen Alone Can Read, was published in Issue 108 (the Transformations issue) of Confrontation Magazine in the fall of 2010. A fourth experimental story, “Cryptograph,” was published in theNewerYork on 9 October 2013 as part of its Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature (the EEEL). My fifth story, "Perros en la Calle," appeared in Issue 6 of White Rabbit: English Studies in Latin America (Santiago, Chile) in December 2013. A sixth story, "Yanagawa,"--the first of my Japanese stories to be published--appeared in theNewerYork on 7 January 2014, also as part of the Electronic Encyclopedia of Experimental Literature. My seventh story, "Illusion of Depth," was published on 17 February 2014 in Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, Catch and Release, and an eighth story, "Chiricahua," was published in the February International Issue of New Zealand's Flash Frontier on 21 February 2014. My ninth fiction publication, "Incident on Abiko Street," (my second Japanese story and also the second story from Characters Madmen Alone Can Read to appear) was published in Hong Kong on 31 March 2014 by Cha: An Asian Literary Journal as part of its Sixth Anniversary Issue. A tenth story, "What Charlie Said," was published on 1 April 2014 in Issue 2.4 of Tampa Review Online. My eleventh fiction publication, "Sea of Glass," was published in Columbia: a Journal of Literature and Art, Catch and Release on 16 May 2014. A twelfth story, "Lines Written on a Mall Parking Lot Bench in Mesquite Nevada," was published in Eunoia Review on 24 June 2014. My thirteenth story, microfiction "Riding the Rails," was published in Pif Magazine on 1 August 2014. A fourteenth story, "Big Baby Moses," was published on 1 September 2014 in Issue 3 of Split Rock Review. My fifteenth story, "Solstitial," was published in the September International Issue of New Zealand's Flash Frontier on 16 September 2014. My sixteenth story, "A Sort of Twilight," was published in New Hampshire's Penmen Review on 8 October 2014. This was the fourth story to be published from my collection, Characters Madmen Alone Can Read. My seventeenth story, "Revolution of the Bean," another microfiction from Intersections, was published in Portland Review on 19 October 2014. My eighteenth story, "Hong Kong Labyrinth" was published in theNewerYork on 26 November 2014. A nineteenth story, "Montreal Refraction," was published in Singapore's Eunoia Review on 29 November 2014. My twentieth story, "Shiretoko," was published in the inaugural issue of Berlin's Trainless Magazine on 28 December 2014. My twenty-first story, "Seokguram," set in Korea, was published in the January 2015 issue of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore on 31 January 2015. My twenty-second story, "Awa Odori," set in Shikoku, was published in Issue 82 of Japan's Kyoto Journal on 3 May 2015. My twenty-third and twenty-fourth stories, "Kunming Train" and "Gaungzhou Interlude," were published in Gravel Magazine on 1 June 2015. My twenty-fifth story, "The Uberdog: A Lecture," was published in the Humor and Satire section of Eclectica Magazine on 18 July 2015. My twenty-sixth story, "Guangzhou Doubletake," was published in the August issue of Eastlit on 1 August 2015. My twenty-seventh story, "Doppelganger," was published in the Micro Fiction section of Pif Magazine on 1 September 2015. My twenty-eighth story, "I-80 & 49th," was published by Wild Age Press's Restless Magazine on 14 September 2015. My twenty-ninth story, "Thief of Holes," was published in Issue 9 (the print edition) of Prick of the Spindle on 31 October 2015. My thirtieth story, "Last Night at the Dead Goat," was published in Atticus Review on 10 November 2015. My thirty-first story, "Axis of Combination," was published in Apocrypha & Abstractions on 30 November 2015. My thirty-second story, Manchester micro "Anomaly," was published in the December Microfiction Issue of New Zealand's Flash Frontier. My thirty-third story, "Washington and Polk," a San Francisco flash, was published in Dogzplot on 11 January 2016. My thirty-fourth story, "Showdown in Silicon Alley," was published in the Journal of Microliterature on 7 February 2016. My thirty-fifth story, "City Girl," was published in Eunoia Review on 10 March 2016. My thirty-sixth story, "Gray," was published in Issue 52 of Ellipsis in April 2016. My thirty-seventh story, "No Time Hath She," was pubished in Pif Magazine on 1 May 2016. My thirty-eighth story, "About the Author," was published in Blue Fifth Review on 5 May 2016. My thirty-ninth story, "Rockaway," was published in New York's Cortland Review on 24 May 2016. My fortieth story, "Midnight in the Carré St. Louis," was published in Queen's Quarterly (Canada's oldest literary magazine) on 7 June 2016. "The Postcard," my forty-first story, was published on 23 June 2016 in the October 2015 issue of the UK's Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, a print only publication.My forty-second story, "Padang Besar," also a print only publication, was published in Issue 66 of Apalachee Review on 15 October 2016. My forty-third story, "Bear Hug and Snake Bum," was published in Issue 11, the print issue, of Prick of the Spindle on 24 October 2016. My forty-fourth story, "Characters Madmen Alone Can Read," was published in Chicago Quarterly Review on 13 June 2017. My forty-fifth story, "Into the Valley of Death," a flash section from my road trip memoir, An American Safari, was published in Issue 22 of Del Sol Review in early September 2017. My forty-sixth story, "First and Adams," was published on 25 November 2017 in Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine. My forty-seventh story, "The Great Negation," was published in Singapore's Eunoia Review on 4 September 2018. My forty-eighth story, "Eagle Rock," was published in an anthology, Utah's Best Emerging Writers, on 18 September 2018. My forty-ninth story, "Recognition on Forty-Seventh Street," was published in the UK's Spelk on 26 September 2018. My fiftieth story, "What Every Man Needs," was published in Pif Magazine in early October 2018. My fifty-first story, "Benton City and the End of the World," was published in Eclectica Magazine on 15 October 2018. My fifty-second story, "Cross Section Hanoi," was published in the UK's Long Exposure Magazine on 24 October 2018. My fifty-third publication is a republication of "Yanagawa," which appeared in Chaleur Magazine on 3 November 2018. My fifty-third publication, "Keyboard," was published in an Australian anthology, Seven Deadly Sins,Volume 4: Sloth, on 25 November 2018. My fifty-fourth publication, "The Only Song is the Song of the Self," will be published in an upcoming issue of Fiction Southeast. My fifty-fifth publication, "The Undertow," has been accepted for publication in the Australian anthology, Seven Deadly Sins, Volume 5: Wrath. My fifty-sixth publication is a reissue of "Hong Kong Labyrinth" by FlashFiction.Net. My fifty-seventh publication, "Chain Letter: An Artifact," has been accepted for publisction by 45th Parallel Magazine.

All text published on this site is copyrighted by Mark Crimmins. All images published on this site are copyrighted by Mark Crimmins. This site was launched on 5 August 2007 and will be updated monthly. Mark Crimmins can be reached by email at mark.crimmins@utoronto.ca. The hitcounter below records visits to this site since 11 October 2007.